Reading To Learn Lesson

Hop into Summarizing

Reading to Learn Design

Rationale:

The ultimate goal of reading is comprehension. This lesson introduces students to a helpful strategy known as summarization, which will help them read to learn and understand the text. Students will learn to delete trivial information and redundant information in an article about kangaroos.

Materials:

Class set of article "Kangaroo" by Kids National Geographic
Poster with the rules of summarization on it
Assessmnet chart for each student
Colored marker for each student
Lined paper for each student
Projector

Procedures:

Teacher says: "Raise your hand if you have ever read an article or book and told friend about the reading? Do you read them the whole book, or do you just tell them the important parts of what you read? (Call on student). Yes! You only tell them the important parts of the story! This is called a summary of the book or article. Summarization is a very helpful strategy good readers use to help comprehend or understand what they are reading. If you can summarize a book or article, it is a good indication that you are able to understnad what you've read."
Before we practice summarization let's review what we have learned this about kangaroos. What do you remember about talking about this week? Kangaroos live in the wild and hop on their hind legs. They have very large feet and a baby kangaroo is called a joey.
I am so impressed that you all remembered so much about kangaroos. So keep up the good workd Now, let's talk more about. Everybody take out a marker and a sheet of paper. Turn your paper horizontal, like a hot dog, and divide it into three different columns. Okay, now lets look at our "Rules of Summarizing" poster. Can someone read the first rule for summarizing? Yes, the first rule of summarizing is to delete the trivia, or unimportant infomration. We don't want to keep any repreated information. Every write this rule as the top of the first column on your piece of paper. It is very useful to cross out important information if you can mark on the article you are reading, but if you are reading a book you will probablyhave to make a mental notethat certain parts may not be as important as others. This will help you to understand the message the author is trying to tell you. Now look at the second rule. The second rule is to find the important information. Eveyrbody write this rule at the top of the second column. When you find something that is important in the book or article you are reading, underline or highlight the sentence so you can go banc and remember that is must be important. The final rule of summarization is to make a topic sentence. Everybody write this rule at the top of the third column on your paper. Making a topic sentence can be very challenging because most texts don't have topic sentences incorporated. A topic sentence combines all of the important information in a short, condensed way so that you are able to summarize and comprehend the paragraph you read.
Everybody watch me as I use my rules to summarize this paragraph. (Pull out a premade copy of the 3 columns of paper). Let's look at the first sentence: "Female kangaroos sport a pouch on their belly, made by a fold in the skin, to cradle baby kangaroos called joeys." Is it important to have a pouch? I think so! It explains what the paragraph is going to be about. I am going to write sentence number on under my second column of important information. I notice that at the end of the first sentence, we learn that baby kangaroos are called joeys. I think this is redundant because we have already learned it. It can be taken out, so I am going to write this down in my first column. Let's look at the next part - "After birth, joeys travel, unassisted, through their mom's thick fur to the comfort and safety of the pouch." I believe the most important part of this is that joeys travel in their mothers pouch for comfort and safety. Now I am going to write this in information in the second column because it is important.Now lets mark an X over the rest of information and write it in the first column becuase I do not think it is important.
Now that we have finished the first paragraph let's try to create a topic sentence. Remember the topic sentence is one sentence that explains what the paragrah is talking about. So we only need to look at the second column for important information. I have that pouches are made of a fold in the skin to cradle baby kangaroos and that joeys travel in their mother's pouch for safety and comfort. I would make a topic sentence by saying: Female kangaroos have pouches, made from a fold in skin, that joeys travel in for comfort and safety. This sentence has all the important parts of the paragrah and is a good summary of the paragraph. Does anyone have an questions?
Now I want all of you to summarize the other paragraphs. Remember to write down important and non-important information in each column to help you create a topic sentence. Feel free to look at our summarizing poster if you need help. Create a topic sentence for each paragraph and when you have finished, stape the article to your paper with your columns, and turn it in to me.

Assessment:

I will review each student's column chart to determin if they could successfully summarize the different paragraphs. I will use the assessment checklist to record each child's grade. Topic sentences may vary slightly, but I will be looking to see if they child included important information in each.

Comprehension Questions:

1. What is the purpose of a pouch?

2. Who lives in the pouch?

3. What is the pouch made of?

Assessment Checklist:

Student Name: ___________________________

1. Did the student fill out the chart on his/her paper?

2. Did the students come up with topic sentences for the remaining paragraphs?

3. Did the student successfully delete unimportant/redundant information?

4. Did the student succesfully identify important parts?

5. Did the student use important information to come up with topic sentence?

References:

1. National Geographic, "Kangaroo" http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/kangaroo/

2. Buzz into Summarizing, Mary Cameron Faison

http://marycameronf.wix.com/msfaisonsreadingtips#!buzz-into-summarization/crno

3. Summing Up the Buzz: Carly Woods

https://sites.google.com/site/misswoods14/summing-up-the-buzz

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